SOME NEW GERMAN FAMILY DISCOVERIES PT4

Continuing my discussion about my recent new discoveries of my Mom's German ancestors.
I didn't get very far with the line of Mom's paternal grandfather Offinger line and unfortunately the same was true about her paternal grandmother's Luick relatives. But I did have a bit more sucess with the ancestors of one of her German great-grandmothers.

I already knew Joanna Luick's parents were Christian and  Christiana Luick. Using that information I did a search at FamilySearch Records and found a big surprise: it appears Joanna was not the only member of her family to make their way to Massachusetts.

-First I found a death record for 71 year old Christian Luick in Cambridge, Ma on  6May 1891 from apoplexy. He was born in Germany to a Christian Luick and Justina Peringer(beringer?). The entry number is 484:

"Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-68L3-SMN?cc=1463156&wc=MJCK-RM9%3A1043014601 : 22 May 2019), 0961504 (004224896) > image 107 of 559; State Archives, Boston.

-I also found death records from the city of Boston for two men in Boston who may be Joanna's brothers. The first was Carl Luick, who died on 8Aug 1875 of pthisis (tuberculosis). He was 48 years old,  born in Germany and his parents were Christian and Christiana. The other brother was Ernst Luick who died of a gunshot in Boston at age 49. He was born in Germany to parents Christian Luick and Christina Ruppermilk.

Now with that information I started searching the FamilySearch German records.

To be continued...

SOME NEW GERMAN FAMILY DISCOVERIES PT1

I've had a lot of luck researching my Dad's New England roots, but not so much with Mom's irish and German ancestry. However, I've had some breakthroughs on the German side of her family. Here's what I already knew about them.

My Mom's paternal grandmother's maiden name was Pauline Offinger. In the Massachusetts Marriages 1695-1910 collection at  FamilySearch I learned that Pauline was born in Cambridge, that her father was Charles Offinger and her mother was "Johanna C.".

Also from FamilySearch I learned Charles was Karl J. Offinger, born in Wurtemburg, Germany in 1848 to Jacob Offinger and his wife Christiana. Johanna was Johanna C. Luick, daughter of Christian Luick and his wife Christina. She also was born in Wurtemburg but four years earlier than Charles. I found records of the births of their children in the Massachusetts Births and Christenings 1639-1915 collection, and records of their deaths and  the deaths of two of their sons, Frederick and William, in the Massachusetts Deaths and Burials 1695-1910. Three children lived to be married : Albert, Julia, and great grandmother Pauline.

Next I went over to Ancestry.com.On the New York Passenger Lists 1820-1957 I found the image of the passenger list for the ship Deutschland showing that Charles and Johanna arrived in New York City from Bremen on 13Jun 1870. I found the census records for 1870,1880 and 1900 for them and also the census records for their children Julia and Albert. Then I found entries for them in the City Directories.

But I kNew very little about the parents and families of Karl Offinger and Johanna Luick before they came to America, That changed this past weekend.

To be continued...

THE WRECK OF THE S. S. DEUTSCHLAND

The passenger list from the S.S. Deutschland with my 2x great grandparents names on the fourth & fifth lines.

This past Saturday, June 13th, was the anniversary of the arrival of my German 2x great grandparents Charles Offinger and Joanna Luick's arrival in New York in 1870. I mentioned
it on Facebook, along with the fact that the ship that brought them here was the S.S. Deutschland, out of Bremen, Germany. Terri Kallio, one of my Facebook genealogy friends, asked me if it was the same ship that sank in 1875. I had to admit I didn't know, so Terri sent me a link to a Wikipedia article about the ship, and yes, indeed, it was the same ship. It ran aground neat Kent, England on 6Dec 1875 and it wasn't until the next day that the 135 survivors could be rescued. By then, 78 crewmen and passengers had died.

Terri also sent me a link to a poem about the tragedy. It turns out that among the passengers who died in the shipwreck were five German Catholic nuns headed to America to escape religious persecution.  The English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins who was a Catholic priest wrote a long poem about it, The Wreck of the Deutschland. The link Terri sent me was to a YouTube version which uses a clever bit of animation to make it seem as if a portrait of Hopkins is reciting the poem.

When I went looking for a printed version of it, I discovered it was much longer. I won't
show the complete poem here, but there are a few verses in the second part about the
first few hours after the wreck occurred:

        On Saturday sailed from Bremen,   
            American-outward-bound,           
        Take settler and seamen, tell men with women,   
            Two hundred souls in the round—   
    O Father, not under thy feathers nor ever as guessing   
    The goal was a shoal, of a fourth the doom to be drowned;   
        Yet did the dark side of the bay of thy blessing          
Not vault them, the million of rounds of thy mercy not reeve even them in?   



            Into the snows she sweeps,   
            Hurling the haven behind,   
        The Deutschland, on Sunday; and so the sky keeps,   
            For the infinite air is unkind,           
    And the sea flint-flake, black-backed in the regular blow,   
    Sitting Eastnortheast, in cursed quarter, the wind;   
        Wiry and white-fiery and whirlwind-swivellèd snow   
Spins to the widow-making unchilding unfathering deeps.   



            She drove in the dark to leeward,           
            She struck—not a reef or a rock   
        But the combs of a smother of sand: night drew her   
            Dead to the Kentish Knock;   
    And she beat the bank down with her bows and the ride of her keel:   
    The breakers rolled on her beam with ruinous shock;           
       And canvas and compass, the whorl and the wheel   
Idle for ever to waft her or wind her with, these she endured.   



            Hope had grown grey hairs,   
            Hope had mourning on,   
        Trenched with tears, carved with cares,           
            Hope was twelve hours gone;   
    And frightful a nightfall folded rueful a day   
    Nor rescue, only rocket and lightship, shone,   
        And lives at last were washing away:   
To the shrouds they took,—they shook in the hurling and horrible airs.

So the German steamship that had brought my 2x great grandparents to America came
to an untimely end five years later, along with other German immigrants who would not
live to see their American dreams come true.

Thanks to Terri Kallio for helping me discover this story.

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN: MY BEST GENEALOGY RESEARCH

I'm a day late for Randy Seaver's "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun" 
challenge. Here's the topic for this week:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  Decide which of your (many?) genealogy research adventures
was your "very best" (your definition). 

2)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to 
this blog post, or in a Status report or comment on Facebook. 


I've had a pretty good year this year researching my family but I think
the best bit was what I found on my mother's maternal grandparents
Charles Offinger and Johanna Luick. I owe James Tanner of
Genealogy's Star a debt of gratitude because it was one of his
posts that prompted me to go to FamilySearch Record Search and
what I found there led to more discovery over at Ancestry.com.
You can read what I found at this blogpost. 

Despite the successes I've had this past year, I'm well aware that
there are more records and resources out there besides what I've
found online.I'm determined to start making  use of them in 2011
to further my research.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MY OFFINGER ANCESTORS2

In Part 1 I discussed how I found  information on my Offinger ancestors.
Now I'm going to discuss  that information and what it tells me about the
family's history.

Charles Offinger and Johanna Luick arrived in New York City aboard
the Deutschland on 13Jun 1870.Whether they were already a couple or
met onboard is unknown, but both were in Massachusetts by the end of
the summer. Johanna was working as domestic servant in the Jamaica
Plain neighborhood of Boston on 4Aug 1870 for the John D Wester
family. Charles was enumerated on 29Aug in the Cambridgeport section
of Cambridge and apparently was living in an apartment building with
other young men from Wurtemburg, all but one under the age of thirty
and all giving their occupation as something connected with furniture-
making.

Then Charles and Johanna  wed on 11Sep 1870. On 19Dec 1870 a
Charles Offinger is born to Charles and Johanna Offinger in Cambridge,
Middlesex, Ma. Did Johanna's pregnancy happen before they left
Wurtemburg or was Charles the product of a shipboard romance?
Either way, he must have died at a young age because he does not
appear as one of the Offinger children listed on the 1880 census.

"Charles Offinger, cabinet maker, h. Harvard near Weston" appears
in the Cambridge City Directory for 1871. In 1872 and 1875 his
address is given as "6 Portland"  but by 1878 he'd moved to a house at
"19 Vine". Something must have changed in the next two years as in the
1880 directory he's listed as  "Offinger Charles, laborer, h. rear 13 Vine".
This must be the house listed as 11 Vine St on the 1880 Cambridge
Federal Census. By this time he and Johanna had six children, ranging
from 12 year old Emelia to two year old Julia. His occupation is
however listed as a cabinetmaker.

Wait a minute! Twelve year old Emelia? Where did she come from?
That would put her birth two years before Charles and Johanna married.
Given the times, I doubt they would have had a child out of wedlock in
Germany so at the moment my theory is that Emelia was a child from a
previous marriage of either Charles or Johanna. This is the only mention
of her I can find so far so she might have died sometime shortly after
1880. Charles is listed a final time in the 1881 Cambridge City Directory,
once more as a cabinet maker. He died on 17 Jul 1881 leaving 36 year
old Johanna to raise their children alone.

I haven't found any trace of Johanna from 1881 until the Boston City
Directory of 1895. It was published in Oct 1894 and shows that
Johanna had now moved into Boston and living at a house on
"Metropolitan Ave near Washington". Son Albert is listed as a clerk and
as a boarder at the same address, as well as son Frederick, who was a
clerk at 105 Summer St, Room 14". They might all have been there since
1890 when the boys are listed at that address.Perhaps Johanna lived
there as well since  Albert and Frederick were only still in their late teens.
I found no mention of William, Pauline or Julia in the directories prior to
1895.

The year 1895 would hold both joy and sorrow for the Offingers. Son
Frederick died at age 23 on 26Jul 1895, and my great grandmother
Pauline married Edward J .White on 27Nov. Johanna and Albert were
now joined at Metropolitan Ave by third son William. He died young at
age 22 on 24Aug 1898 and now daughter Julia moved into the household.
On the 1900 Federal Census the household consisted of 56 year old
Johanna, 29 year old Albert, a curtain hanger, and 21 year old Julia, a
bookkeeper and saleswoman.

Albert married Hattie Heckman on 6Jun1905 in Boston. I've found no
record that they ever had any children.Albert appears in the Boston City
Directories as an upholsterer at 23 Metropolitan Ave right up until 1946
when he would have been 76 years old. I've yet to find a date of death
for him.

Julia married John W. McCarthy on 25Feb 1906 and had five children.
So far I haven't found any records of any descendants or of her death.

As for Johanna Luick Offinger, she may have moved out of Metropolitan
Ave when Albert married because when she died at home on 14Aug 1908,
her residence is listed as 32 Folsom Street. She'd been fighting cancer for
a year and a half.

And except for what little information I had about great grandmother
Pauline and her children, I  knew none of this until a week ago Sunday
when I entered Pauline's name in FamilySearch's Record Search!